Palace sees conviction of ‘pork’ suspects

An activist posing as President Benigno Aquino 3rd gets his mug shot taken during the launching of the “Hatol ng Bayan” at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines on Sunday. Militant groups started a protest countdown campaign leading to Aquino’s fifth State of the Nation Address in July. PHOTO BY EDWIN MULI

DESPITE recent setbacks in the filing of plunder charges at the Sandiganbayan, Malacañang remains confident that the Justice department’s diligence in building up the case against suspects in the pork barrel scam is enough to ensure their conviction.

“Before the information was filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, there was thorough study done by the Department of [Justice], the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] and other government agencies in gathering data and information in doing the case build-up to ensure that the charges are based on concrete evidence that can be proven in court,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said on Sunday.

Speaking at state-run Radyo ng Bayan, Coloma added that there was no room for “guessing” or “speculation” when the DOJ investigated the charges against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

“The government knows the standards of our justice system that when a case is tried by the court, guilt must be beyond reasonable doubt,” the Palace official stressed.

Prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman last week tried to amend the information for plunder filed against Revilla and Estrada but failed to get the anti-graft court’s nod.

Nevertheless, Coloma said the pieces of evidence that were submitted by the DOJ, including authenticated documents that bore the signatures of those involved, will be sufficient to pin down the accused.

“That’s why they labored to gather strong evidence, authentic documents that will support the charges. That remains our stand,” the Palace official noted.

Estrada and his co-accused will be arraigned today.

“We will witness the continuation of the process of law and we hope that it will proceed in a just manner and fair trial… aimed at getting justice for the alleged misuse of public funds,” Coloma said.

Arraignment
Estrada, Napoles and several other personalities will be arraigned at the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division.

Estrada is accused of amassing P183 million in “pork” kickbacks. He also faces 11 counts of graft.

Revilla was arraigned last week. The two senators are detained in Camp Crame, Philippine National Police headquarters in Quezon City.

The anti-graft court’s Third Division is yet to determine if there is probable cause to issue arrest warrants for Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and his co-accused.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares agreed with Coloma that the strength of the cases filed against the senators will depend on the prosecution’s evidence.

He said the prosecution should prepare for the defense because it could use the attempt at amending the charge in their favor.

“By trying to change the main theory of their plunder cases, the prosecutors gave the senators’ defense teams the ammunition to question the cases and prolong the trial and to boost their claim that the filing of charges was rushed in order to harass them,” Colmenares added. He warned that if the defense went the Supreme Court, the trial and resolution of the cases would be delayed.

4 Comments

Even if no conviction happens, the real motives have already been achieved. That is to effect damage to the opposition for the 2016 election. That is understandable because PNoy is first and foremost a politician just like the other presidents that we had.

The inconsistent lists, the inconsistent testimonies, the inconsistent pronouncements in the media; the pitting of very motivated, well-remunerated legal eagles, as against the relatively young prosecutors can be real factors in the outcome of the cases. In short, filing of cases is one thing; proving them is another.

The inquiring mind asks the question, why the team of prosecutors tried to amend some of the wordings in the case presented? this will lead to suspicion that there could be shenanigans going on by these prosecutors to create confusion, so by technicalities the plunderers win their case and go scot-free. Is this possible? yes, specially that bribery is rampant in the country. I hope that the cases will be adjudicated fairly.